Daily Archives: May 6, 2017

Miami Judge Says Compelling Password Production Isn’t A Fifth Amendment Issue – Techdirt

Posted: May 6, 2017 at 3:20 am

Another small dart has been lodged in the thigh of the Fifth Amendment by the courts. A Miami, FL federal judge has ruled that defendants in a sex video extortion case must turn over their phones' passwords.

In a case being closely watched in legal and tech circles, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Charles Johnson ruled that Hencha Voigt, and another man charged with being her accomplice, must unlock phones police believe were used in a plot to extort a social-media celebrity.

He ruled that unlocking their phones would not violate their constitutional right against self-incrimination.

For me, this is like turning over a key to a safe deposit box, Johnson said.

The jurisprudence related to passwords and the Fifth Amendment is all over the place, but it seems to be leaning towards treating device passwords and pins as "non-testimonial." Other decisions have resulted in the indefinite jailing of defendants on contempt of court charges for refusing to turn over passwords. Arguing against self-incrimination hasn't found many judicial supporters, but the issue is far from settled.

Indefinite jailing may be on tap for these defendants as well. They've been given two weeks to comply with the order, with the "or else" being a stay of indeterminate length at the local lockup. The Miami judge appears to be following state precedent, citing an earlier case where the state appeals court ruled in favor of the government, ordering an upskirt photographer to turn over his password to prosecutors.

This decision will be appealed. But the decision cited by this judge appears to indicate this will only delay the inevitable. Sooner or later, this issue will have to be addressed by the Supreme Court, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen. The Supreme Court frequently takes a pass on timely issues, leaving circuit appeals courts to do most of the heavy lifting. There really hasn't been enough Fifth Amendment cases of this type in federal appeals courts to press the issue. So far, the only thing that's been made clear in multiple cases is fingerprints are worse than passwords when it comes to locking law enforcement out of phone contents.

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‘The time has come to treat the Second Amendment as a real constitutional right’ – Washington Post

Posted: at 3:19 am

From todays Fisher v. Kealoha opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (and Judge Alex Kozinskis separate opinion, though he also joined the panel opinion) like many judicial opinions, it leaves much unresolved, but it flags an important question for the future: What sorts of procedures must the government offer for recovering Second Amendment rights that were lost as a result of a criminal conviction?

Kirk Fisher appeals the district courts adverse grant of summary judgment on the issue of whether section 134-7 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes constitutionally prohibits him from owning or possessing firearms because of his 1997 conviction for harassment [of his wife and daughter] in violation of section 711-1106 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

This appeal involves the interaction of three statutory provisions: (1) section 134-7(a) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, which prohibits a person from owning or possessing firearms if that person is prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law; (2) 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9), which prohibits the possession of firearms by persons convicted of any misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; and 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(33)(B)(ii), which provides that a person shall not be considered to have been convicted of [a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence] if the conviction has been expunged or set aside, or is an offense for which the person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored.

We have previously determined that section 922(g)(9) burdens conduct protected by the Second Amendment and upheld its constitutionality, facially and as-applied, under intermediate scrutiny. United States v. Chovan, 735 F.3d 1127, (9th Cir. 2013), considered, among other things, whether section 922(g)(9) could be constitutionally applied to a defendant based on a fifteen-year-old domestic violence misdemeanor conviction. We recognized that keeping firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers is an important government interest and noted the high rate of recidivism for domestic abusers and the number and likelihood of domestic violence deaths involving the use of a firearm.

We also rejected Chovans argument that section 922(g)(9) could not constitutionally apply to him because he had committed no further acts of domestic violence in the fifteen years following his conviction. Even assuming that Chovan had committed no such acts, we explained, Chovan had failed to adduce sufficient evidence:

(1) contradicting the governments evidence regarding the high rate of domestic violence recidivism; and (2) showing that a domestic abuser who has not re-offended after fifteen years is unlikely to do so again. Id. Thus, under intermediate scrutiny, the statute addressed a substantial governmental interest and was tailored sufficiently to satisfy intermediate scrutiny.

Fisher argue [that] his harassment conviction occurred many years ago, and he has not committed any other crimes since that time. This argument is not meaningfully distinguishable from the one that we rejected in Chovan, and we reject it here as well.

Fisher [also] argues that section 922(g)(9) is unconstitutional as applied to him because Hawaii law provides for only one of the four restoration mechanisms listed in section 921(a)(33)(B)(ii): gubernatorial pardon. [T]his second argument is not foreclosed by Chovan [Footnote: [I]n Chovan, we applied intermediate rather than strict judicial scrutiny in part because section 922(g)(9)s burden on Second Amendment rights was lightened by [the availability of mechanisms for restoration such as expungement or civil rights restoration]. Id. at 1138; see also id. at 1151 (Bea, J., concurring) (concluding that section 922(g)(9) was narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest in part because of the restoration mechanisms listed in section 921(a)(33)(B)(ii)).] [But] we decline to address it here.

Fisher concedes that he has not applied for a gubernatorial pardon for his 1997 conviction. Thus, Fisher has failed to avail himself of the one restoration mechanism that is available to him under Hawaii law, and he is in no position to argue that Hawaiis restoration mechanisms are constitutionally insufficient. See In re Coleman, 560 F.3d 1000 (9th Cir. 2009) (Where a dispute hangs on future contingencies that may or may not occur, it may be too impermissibly speculative to present a justiciable controversy.).

Kozinski, circuit judge, ruminating:

A states procedure for restoring Second Amendment rights bears directly on the degree to which the state encumbers those rights. Thus, despite defendants and amicis furious protestations to the contrary, we must consider Hawaiis available restoration procedures. Our modern Second Amendment jurisprudence trains its sights on the degree to which the state burdens the right and whether that burden is tailored to the states goal. Whether a state has a procedure for restoring Second Amendment rights plainly affects both the weight of the burden and our measure of its tailoring.

Criminal punishment, of course, always involves the deprivation of rights, but such deprivations can still raise constitutional concerns. The extent of the deprivation matters. Most recently, for example, federal courts have looked skeptically at lifelong restrictions on sex offenders Internet access. While restrictions on each right have their own distinctive history and restrictions on the Second Amendment are no exception it is unsurprising that we might look askance at a states permanent restriction on a misdemeanants right to bear arms.

Hawaiis procedure for restoring Second Amendment rights is notably slender: The governor can pardon someone. But gubernatorial clemency is without constraint; as Blackstone put it, an executives mercy springs from a court of equity in his own breast.

This unbounded discretion sits in uneasy tension with how rights function. A right is a check on state power, a check that loses its force when it exists at the mercy of the state. Government whim is the last refuge of a precarious right. And while Fishers case gives us no occasion to seek better refuge, others will.

In other contexts, we dont let constitutional rights hinge on unbounded discretion; the Supreme Court has told us, for example, that [t]he First Amendment prohibits the vesting of such unbridled discretion in a government official. Despite what some may continue to hope, the Supreme Court seems unlikely to reconsider Heller. The time has come to treat the Second Amendment as a real constitutional right. Its here to stay.

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Eight Pro-Second Amendment Smackdowns from NRA Annual … – Breitbart News

Posted: at 3:19 am

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LaPierre made clear there would be no apologies for the smackdowns. Rather, he pointed out that one of the things the American people love about the NRA is the fact that the group speaks truth.

LaPierre said:

For the last quarter of a century, in poll after poll, whether its Gallup or NBC or The Wall Street Journal, Americans have said they view the NRA more favorably than both chambers of congress or either national political party.The majority of Americans admire and trust the NRA because we always say out loud what we believe. We speak the truth, even when it may be hard, and we fight like hell to defend it.

In light of the NRAs voice for truth, Breitbart News pulled together eight pro-Second Amendment smackdowns, along with a bonus smackdown at the end. Most of the smackdowns require no commentary.

Colonel Allen West West said, Here I stand as a son of Atlanta, a native Georgian, and a board member of the oldest civil rights organization that this country has ever known: the National Rifle Association.

Sheriff David ClarkeClarke said: We won a huge battle last November but we did not win the war. You see, our fight for freedom continues in earnest. You see, these rat bastards on the left never give upfor them defeat is never final, election defeats dont matter. Its simply a time to regroup and continue their assault on our constitution, the rule of law, liberty, and American exceptionalism.

Chris Cox Cox recounted a conversation he had with President Trump after the inauguration, saying, [It got so] ridiculous that the media, they were even lying about the number of people who watched [[President Trumps] inauguration. I told him that the only number that mattered was the number of people that watched Hillary Clintons inaugurationZERO!

Senator Ted Cruz Cruz said, When the election results came in we heard a piercing wail of agony, as mainstream media reporters shrieked in horror because the American people had risen up and defied Washington, defied the mainstream media, defied pundits, and said, We will defend our constitution and we will defend our freedom.'

Wayne LaPierre After listing the mainstream medias failure to report the truth regarding the devious goals of Democrats and gun control groups around the country, LaPierre asked, When did the media stop being journalists and start becoming PR flacks for the destruction our country?

President Donald Trump After recounting the way he ran and won on the Second Amendment with the NRAs endorsement, President Trump laughingly told the thousands of attendees at the Leadership Forum to be ready to be wooed by Democrats, I have a feeling that in the next election youll be swamped with candidates, but youre not going to be wasting your time. Youll have plenty of those Democrats coming over and youll say, No Thanks or No SirNo Maam, perhaps Maamit may be Pocahontas, remember that. Amid applause Trump said, You came through for me and I am going to come through for you.

Chris CoxCox stressed that while Trumps election changed everything for law-abiding gun owners, it changed nothing for the media and Hollywood, And he made clear it didnt change gun controllers determination either, saying, Michael Bloomberg, hes still short, rich, and angry.

Colonel Allen West The oldest civil right, the oldest individual right, the thing that enables us to be this great independent country, is that we will not become subjects, we will not let anyone take away our guns; we will not allow anyone to subjugate us under a tyrannical rule.

BONUS SMACKDOWN LaPierre said, Bernie Sanders was not a movement, as fawning media called his campaign. Bernie is a political predator of young voters who were lied to by school teachers and college professorsLaPierre said young voters were told free, free, free, for me, but no one told the truth about how all that stuff was going to be paid for. Nevertheless, LaPierre made clear that the media was in on the play because socialism would have aided in the goal of disarming and enslaving the American people.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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Does the First Amendment protect ‘liking’ a racist Instagram post? Some Calif. students say it does. – Washington Post

Posted: at 3:19 am

Four California high school students who were suspended for liking and commenting on racistInstagram postshavefiled a federal lawsuit alleging administrators paraded them through the school and allowed their classmates to berate them as part of a healing exercise.

The plaintiffs were among more than a dozen students at Albany High School who were accused of liking or commenting on the posts, which showed pictures of female African Americanclassmates and the girls basketballcoach with nooses drawn around their necks. Other images showedthe girlsnext to photos of apes, according tothe Mercury News.

The posts surfaced in March, after some of the students classmates took screen shots of them and reported them to administrators at the public high school. The student who created the images not named in the lawsuit was suspended.

A complaint filed this week accuses the Albany Unified School District of going too far in suspending the other students. The lawsuit which names the school district, the school and several administrators alleges the four plaintiffswere punished in violation of their First Amendment and due process rights.

This action arises out of a private online discussion between friends that the Albany School system has pried into without authority, the lawsuit said. All conduct at issue in this matter occurred off school property, were conducted off school hours, and were otherwise completely unrelated to school activity.

Albany Unified School District Superintendent Valerie Williamssaid in a statementWednesday that the district wasreviewing the case.

The district takes great care to ensure that our students feel safe at school, and we are committed to providing an inclusive and respectful learning environment for all of our students, Williams said, as reported by the Mercury News. The district intends to defend this commitment and its conduct within the court system.

The lawsuit alleged that the plaintiffs, all juniors,were wrongfully suspended by the school in late March after some of their classmates took screen shots of the Instagram posts and reported them to administrators.

When the students returned on March 30, the lawsuit said, administrators forced them to march through the school while their peers tormented them.

School administrators allowed the student body to hurl obscenities, scream profanities, and jeer at the Plaintiffs and the other suspended students, who were all not allowed to leave what the school considered an act of atonement but was rather a thinly veiled form of public shaming, the lawsuit said.

Eventually, a parent stepped in and convinced administrators to stop the event, which was described in the complaint as a healing exercise.

Later the same day, they attended a voluntary restorative justice session organized by a community group. A few hundred students and parents gathered outside to protest. When the session came to a close, the demonstration grew tense, prompting the plaintiffs parents to ask for a police escort out, according to the complaint.

As two of the plaintiffs were leaving,an incensed demonstrator struck both of them in the head, leaving one of them with a broken nose and the other with cuts and bruises, the lawsuit alleged.

Plaintiffs have all have suffered emotional distress due to these incidents, the complaint read, including anxiety, fear, insomnia and other distress.

Thestudents want theschool to wipe their disciplinary records clean, refrain from any further punishment and allow them to make up the work they missed.

Some of the students on the receiving end of the racist posts told local media they felt threatened. The uncle and guardian of a teenage girl shown in one of the images told the Mercury Newshis nieces grades suffered after the incident.

Free speech is a fundamental right, said the uncle, who asked not to be named, but it cant be at the expense of hurting someone.

Awoman who said she was the mother of a sophomore at the school told the Mercury News:This is bullying. This is racist. This is sexist. They were attacking kids.

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Deer Creek Public Schools addressing First Amendment concerns … – KOKH FOX25

Posted: at 3:19 am

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH)

The administration of Deer Creek Public Schools reports they are working directly with the ACLU to address First Amendment concerns.

Deer Creek Public Schools released a statement May 5 reporting that they "strongly support" students' First Amendment rights.

"No students were disciplined for their expression of the First Amendment. We support all students within the context of maintaining safe and orderly schools, and have policy and procedures in place to help keep all students safe." the statement said.

On May 3, the ACLU of Oklahoma claimed that an African American student from Deer Creek High School was forced to remove a shirt with the phrase "Black Lives Matter" because it was a dress code violation.

In response to the alleged incident, students planned to wear black in support of the student which led to an email to parents from Deer Creek High School Principal Melissa Jordan. The email allegedly threatened any students participating to be shown disciplinary action.

Deer Creek administration says they want a student body that is "inclusive and not divided". The district reports that all employees have gone through harassment and bullying training. Students have also gone through assemblies hoping to "further their focus on tolerance, kindness and acceptance of all students during the 2016-2017 year."

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The Soul of the First Amendment – Philly.com

Posted: at 3:19 am

In his book Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, Justice Stephen Breyer maintained that the primary purpose of the First Amendment goes beyond protecting the individual from government restrictions.

First and foremost, Breyer wrote, the First Amendment seeks to facilitate democratic self-government.

When it is correctly viewed, he maintained, one must understand the First Amendment as seeking primarily to encourage the exchange of information and ideas necessary for citizens themselves to shape that public opinion which is the final source of government in a democratic state.

In his dissenting opinion in the McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission case, relating to limitations on the total amount of contributions a donor may make to candidates for Congress, in which he was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, Breyer argued similarly.

The First Amendment, he wrote, advances not only the individuals right to engage in political speech, but also the publics interest in preserving a democratic order in which collective speech matters. The First Amendment, he urged, must be understood as promoting a government where laws reflect the very thoughts, views, ideas, and sentiments, the expression of which the First Amendment protects.

These views offer a double-barreled First Amendment, one that addresses not only the risks of governmental control over speech but the desirability of a government truly responsive to the views of the public. But there is reason to doubt that the First Amendment can serve both ends.

First and foremost, after all, the First Amendment seeks to protect against the dangers of government overreaching into areas where government itself is especially dangerous freedom of religion, speech, and press. At its core, it is not about promoting collective speech but of avoiding the imposition of just such speech by the government.

One of the benefits of the First Amendment is that it generally leads to a better-informed public and ultimately a more representative government. But we surely would not allow particular speech to be suppressed because the government decided that it led the public to become ill-informed or less enamored of representative government.

That sort of censorship is the opposite of what the First Amendment is about.

The notion that First Amendment interests are served whenever laws genuinely reflect public opinion also seems to overlook the reality that the public too often seeks to suppress speech it disapproves of. Speech is sometimes ugly, outrageous, even dangerous. The understandable public response to such speech is often one of disgust, revulsion, and sometimes anger. And support for taking steps to ensure that the offending speech does not recur.

Floyd Abramsis the author of The Soul of the First Amendment(Yale University Press, 2017). He willdiscuss his book at noon Monday at the National Constitution Center. For information, visit constitutioncenter.org/debate or call 215-409-6700.

Published: May 5, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: May 5, 2017 3:13 PM EDT

We recently asked you to support our journalism. The response, in a word, is heartening. You have encouraged us in our mission to provide quality news and watchdog journalism. Some of you have even followed through with subscriptions, which is especially gratifying. Our role as an independent, fact-based news organization has never been clearer. And our promise to you is that we will always strive to provide indispensable journalism to our community. Subscriptions are available for home delivery of the print edition and for a digital replica viewable on your mobile device or computer. Subscriptions start as low as 25 per day. We're thankful for your support in every way.

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Caller-Times journalists recognized for First Amendment reporting – Corpus Christi Caller-Times

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Reporters Krista Torralva and Natalia Contreras teamed up for a story about the days leading up to the death of Noemi Villarreal, a victim of domestic violence. The article earned them the First Amendment Award in the Defending the Disadvantaged category.(Photo: File photos)

Three Caller-Times journalists were recognized in April by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Reporters Krista Torralva and Natalia Contreras teamed up for a story about the days leading up to thedeath ofNoemi Villarreal, a victim of domestic violence. The articleearned them First Amendment Award in the Defending the Disadvantaged category. The category highlights stories that illustrate the problems of the powerless in society.

More:Six days after reporting domestic violence, Noemi Villarreal was dead

Six days after seeking help from Corpus Christi police after her boyfriend held her captive,Noemi Villarreal's naked body was foundstuffed in a trash can in a grassy field near Oso Bay.

Villarreal's income came from dancing at a strip club and a disability check. She became dependent on drugs and her boyfriend, Lance Taylor, provided her with sedatives and antidepressants, her sister,Nydia Villarreal, said to Contreras. Taylor was indicted in September for murder in her death.

Contreras saidNydia Villarreal's candid disclosure of Noemi Villarreal'ssocial blemishes epitomized a vulnerabilitythat can influence a victims' credibility, which Contreras said should never be the case.

"Your background doesn't matter," Contreras said. "You're supposed to be protected."

The Corpus Christi police Department's family violence unitclosed on the weekends when the story published. The articlehighlightedNoemi's chance of survival if that weren't the case.As of July 28, family violence detectives are rotated for weekends and after hours duty.

Caller-Times reporter Chris Ramirez was named a finalist in the award's Business News category for a story about the effects of the drop in oil prices in South Texas.(Photo: File photo)

Caller-Times reporter Chris Ramirez also was named a finalist in the award's Business News category for a story about the effects of the drop in oil prices inSouth Texas.

More:As oil jobs dry up, unemployment spikes in Coastal Bend

Using the voices ofresidents inAlice, coupled with oil price shifts and unemployment rates of area counties, the storypainted a clear picture of how South Texas townsonce economically supported by Eagle Ford Shale activity are now hurting.

Read or Share this story: http://callertim.es/2peHHrx

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Journalism Nonprofit CEO To Give First Amendment Talk In Hartford – Hartford Courant

Posted: at 3:19 am

The CEO of a nonprofit journalism foundation will be coming to Hartford later this month to host a conversation on the First Amendment.

Alberto Ibargen, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, is speaking at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts on May 18 at an event hosted by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Ibargen, a former Hartford Courant staff writer and Wesleyan University alumnus, will give an address titled "Democracy, Civic Engagement and the Role of the Free Press."

He will discuss "the Knight Foundation's current efforts to support free expression and excellence in journalism to promote informed communities that may better determine their own interests," the foundation said in a news release.

"Knight supports ideas, leaders and initiatives that are helping advance the practice of journalism, including the use of new technology," the foundation said. "Ibargen will also discuss Knight's efforts to support informed and engaged communities, the building blocks of a successful democracy, and to support efforts to make communities more equitable, inclusive and participatory."

Before he joined the Knight Foundation Ibargen was the publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. During his tenure The Miami Herald won three Pultizer Prizes and El Nuevo Herald won Spain's Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in journalism.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit http://www.hpfg.org/ibarguen or call 860-548-1888.

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Tor Browser – TechRadar

Posted: at 3:18 am

Tor (The Onion Router) Browser hides your activity and location online by routing all your browsing through multiple anonymous servers, thereby concealing where you are and making it hard (but not impossible) to identify whos doing what online. That means its a good way to access sites that repressive authorities dont want people to see, for whistleblowers to report corruption and illegal activity without getting fired or worse, and to access the deep web.

The deep web is an internet within the internet, not indexed by search engines, and sites ending with the .onion suffix and can only be accessed via Tor. As youd expect, some of those sites are secret for perfectly good reasons - theyre sharing information that someone, somewhere doesnt want shared - but others are secret because theyre fantastically illegal. Browse at your peril and remember that Tor Browser makes it hard to find you, but doesnt offer 100% unbreakable anonymity. In fact, just using Tor may flag you as a person worth watching, and it's banned on many public networks.

There are plenty of legitimate uses though, and not just if youre a political activist. Tor can give you internet access when your internet provider's DNS servers are kaput, and it can keep your browsing free from the advertising trackers that infest so many sites.

Tor Browser looks like Firefox and works like Firefox because it is Firefox. Its not as fast, though: onion routing makes all of your traffic move around much more than in a regular browser, which slows things down considerably.

Its important to realise that Tor cant protect you from risky behaviours, so for example if you run plugins in the browser they may affect Tors ability to protect your privacy. Its crucial that you dont submit information to sites that dont display a blue or green button in the browser address bar to indicate a secure https connection, for example.

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Study highlights growing significance of cryptocurrencies – Phys.Org

Posted: at 3:18 am

May 5, 2017 Credit: fdecomite

More than 3 million people (three times previous estimates) are estimated to be actively using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, finds the first global cryptocurrency benchmarking study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

While many members of the general public may have heard of "bitcoin", the first decentralised cryptocurrency launched in 2009, a new report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) paints a broader picture of "cryptocurrencies".

The report shows that cryptocurrencies broadly defined as digital assets using cryptography to secure transactions between peers without the need for a central bank or other authority performing that role are increasingly being used, stored, transacted and mined around the globe.

The Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study gathered data from more than 100 cryptocurrency companies in 38 countries, capturing an estimated 75 per cent of the cryptocurrency industry.

Prior to this research, little hard data existed on how many people around the world actively use cryptocurrencies. The conventional wisdom has been that the number of people using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies was around 1 million people; however, based on newly collected data, including the percentage of the estimated 35 million cryptocurrency "wallets" (software applications that store cryptocurrencies) that are in active use, the CCAF research team estimates that there at least 3 million people actively using cryptocurrency today.

While bitcoin remains the dominant cryptocurrency both in terms of market capitalisation and usage, it has conceded market cap share to other cryptocurrencies declining from 86 per cent to 72 per cent in the past two years.

The study by the CCAF at Cambridge Judge Business School breaks down the cryptocurrency industry into four key sectors exchanges, wallets, payments, and mining. Highlights of the findings are:

Exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges provide on-off ramps to cryptocurrency systems by offering services to users wishing to buy or sell cryptocurrency. This sector was the first to emerge in the cryptocurrency industry, and has the most operating entities and employs the most people. Currently, about 52 per cent of small exchanges hold a formal government license, compared to only 35 per cent of large exchanges.

Wallets

Wallets have evolved from simple software programs to sophisticated applications that offer a variety of technical features and services. As a result, the lines between wallets and exchanges are increasingly blurred, with 52 per cent of wallets providing an integrated currency exchange feature.

Payments

Cryptocurrency payment companies generally act as gateways between cryptocurrency users and the broader economy, bridging national currencies and cryptocurrencies. They can fit into two broad categories: firms that use cryptocurrency primarily as a "payment rail" for fast and efficient cross-border transactions, and firms that facilitate the use of cryptocurrency for both users and merchants. The study found that the size of the average business-to-business cryptocurrency payment ($1,878) dwarfs peer-to-peer and consumer-to-business cryptocurrency payments.

Mining

In the absence of a central authority, cryptocurrencies are created by a process called "mining" usually the performance of a large number of computations to solve a cryptographic "puzzle". The study shows how cryptocurrency mining has evolved from a hobby activity into a professional, capital-intensive industry in which bitcoin miners earned more than $2 billion in mining revenues since 2009. The cryptocurrency mining map indicates that a significant proportion of publicly known mining facilities are concentrated in certain Chinese provinces.

The study found that more than 1,800 people are now working full time in the cryptocurrency industry, as more companies are engaged across various cryptocurrency sectors.

"Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been seen by some as merely a passing fad or insignificant, but that view is increasingly at odds with the data we are observing," says Dr Garrick Hileman, Research Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at Cambridge Judge Business School, who co-authored the study with Michel Rauchs, Research Assistant at CCAF.

"Currently, the combined market value of all cryptocurrencies is nearly $40 billion, which represents a level of value creation on the order of Silicon Valley success stories like Airbnb," Dr Hileman says in a foreword to the study. "The advent of cryptocurrency has also sparked many new business platforms with sizable valuations of their own, along with new forms of peer-to-peer economic activity."

Explore further: Towards equal access to digital coins

More information: The report is available online: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/global-cryptocurrency/

Scientists at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg have developed an important mathematical algorithm called "Equihash." Equihash is a core component for the ...

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While cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are relatively new, there are still opportunities for new players to enter the scene and make good money. You may have seen the launch of Nyancoin, based upon the catchy cat meme, earlier ...

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More than 3 million people (three times previous estimates) are estimated to be actively using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, finds the first global cryptocurrency benchmarking study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative ...

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Community detection is an important tool for scientists studying networks. It provides descriptions of the large-scale network by dividing its nodes into related communities. To test community detection algorithms, researchers ...

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I setup a bitcoin node just out of interest, ran it for a couple of weeks, decided to disable it (You can't de-register a node by the way), and two weeks later someone from China was trying to stack smash my router.

The current blockchain header and transaction mechanisms are poorly managed and have many flaws and vulnerabilities.

Ethercoin seems to be the latest fad, and speculators are raving about it, yet it isn't even designed to be a monetary exchange, it's about remote code execution.

IMO, it has suffered from hype and most people are riding the bandwagon without any real understanding of what's happening behind the scenes.

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Study highlights growing significance of cryptocurrencies - Phys.Org

Posted in Cryptocurrency | Comments Off on Study highlights growing significance of cryptocurrencies – Phys.Org